Ravel Morrison: how the West Ham midfielder turned his life around after problems at Manchester United

Ravel Morrison narrowly escaped prison while at Manchester United but is now
being called the most talented player since Gazza. Here those who know the
20-year-old best describe his rise, fall and rise again

Ravel Morrison was born in Wythenshawe and played for Fletcher Moss Rangers, the same children’s team in Manchester which produced Danny Welbeck and Wes Brown. Morrison joined Manchester United at eight after being discovered by Phil Brogan, who was an academy coach and scout at Old Trafford.

“It took me less than an hour to see what a talent Ravel is, when he was just eight years old,” Brogan recalled on Monday. “We were running a football camp for United in Timperley, near Sale in Manchester in May 2001, and as I was looking at one of the games going on, I just spotted how this young lad was moving. I didn’t even need to see him kick a ball at that point, you could just tell he had something about him from his demeanour. I asked for him to play in the game I was running and he stood out immediately.

“I worked with Ravel from 10am to 3pm for the rest of that week and thought I had to get him to the United Academy. I spoke to his mum every day, and finally we got him a six-week trial. It’s true there were some problems with him at the time, but I always thought he was a great kid who just needed guidance.

“On the last day of the six weeks we signed him up, even though he’d also been training with Manchester City for a while. We signed him on the Saturday and he then made his academy debut as a United player on the Monday against City. He scored a goal which was very similar to the one for West Ham against Spurs on Sunday, running from his own half, but with a fearless finish, drilling across the keeper. A week later we played Birmingham and he scored an even better goal. We knew we had a very gifted young player.”

As Brogan acknowledged, Morrison’s obvious talent was almost always accompanied by concerns over the trouble he found off the field, most seriously when he narrowly escaped a prison sentence for witness intimidation in 2011.

“He developed well and was training with the first team at 15, but we knew there were issues. United tried everything they could to help him, but sometimes you can fall in with the wrong crowd. I think leaving Manchester was, in retrospect, one of the best things that could have happened to him to enable him to focus on his career. I think there were negative influences he needed to get away from.

“I genuinely believe he could become good enough to play for any team in the world, including Barcelona. The talent I saw in that eight-year-old will always be there.”

Sam Allardyce signed Morrison for West Ham in January 2012, shortly before the player’s 19th birthday. Morrison made just one appearance for his new club that season as they were promoted from the Championship.

The following season, Birmingham manager Lee Clark ignored the advice of those telling him to steer clear of the troublesome teenager, and took Morrison on a season-long loan. Clark remembers a bumpy initial relationship, but after several one-to-one meetings – some of them stormy – Morrison finally found his form from the start of this year.

Clark said: “When I signed Ravel on loan there were many managers and people in the game calling me up to warn me that he would be the ultimate test of my credentials.

“We had up our ups and downs in the first few months, he was not showing the right application with his timekeeping for games and training and there were times when it cost him his place in the squad.

“There were outside influences at work and he had just moved away from Manchester so we had to make him realise there was so much more to being a footballer than how you perform with a football.”

Clark told Morrison he had more talent than any English footballer since Paul Gascoigne. The reference was lost on a young man born three years after Gazza’s tears at Italia ‘90.

“I know Paul Gascoigne really well from my time with Newcastle and I honestly believe Ravel is the nearest this country has had to him. He’s strong, he can go past people with ease, he can score and create goals and is the closest central midfielder to Gazza.

“When I mentioned his name, Ravel just said ‘who?’ He simply had no idea who he was. I said again ‘you know, Gazza’ and he just stared back at me with a blank look on his face. He was only 19 at the time and had never seen any of the videos of him or anything.

“We had a big chat around October time and while I wouldn’t say it was make-or-break, it was certainly a conversation we had to have. After that I was really pleased with the response and there were no issues. He really knuckled down and it all fell into place. He was the whole package and the player we wanted when we signed him in July.

"We wanted to have him back this season but I honestly knew if he applied himself well at West Ham we’d have no chance of signing him again. That’s how it has turned out and I knew he would go back there and blow them away.”

Morrison began the season with the aim of breaking into Sam Allardyce’s first-choice team.

Two months on, it does not seem so far-fetched to ponder now whether he could even break into Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the World Cup finals in Brazil, if he continues the upward trajectory so spectacularly emphasised by his solo goal against Tottenham on Sunday.

West Ham defender James Tomkins says Morrison’s technical qualities mean he will adapt comfortably to international football.

“He is still a young lad so you’ve got to take it easy because all this hype is going to come out but, if he keeps level headed, he can go anywhere,” said Tomkins.

“He could go to the top level. He’s gone from strength to strength and he keeps getting better and better. He is fully deserving of his under-21 call-up. Technically he is one of the best I have seen in training.”

Tomkins stressed how Morrison, who is 20, had matured hugely over the past year.

“Last year mentally – and he will probably vouch for this – he wasn’t quite ready and the manager made a decision to put him out on loan at Birmingham,” said Tomkins. “That set him up to come back to us. Whenever I have seen him in training and playing he has been excellent. He has matured a lot from last year and hopefully he can get better and better.

“Off the pitch he is a lot more focused. He was focused before but obviously he is a young lad moving from up north down south. It can be hard. I suppose he found it hard. He has always had the ability but he has got it right all around now and hopefully that can continue.”